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It offers top-notch amorous advice, such as : “Without doubt, the uniting of hearts in holy wedlock is of all conditions the happiest, for then a man has a second self to whom he can unravel his thoughts as well as a sweet companion in his labour.

“And when they have done what nature can require, a man must have a care he does not part too soon from the embraces of his wife”.

So, don't just roll over and go to sleep, gentlemen.

This small, well-thumbed, leather-bound ‘sex manual’ was published in 1720 (Image: Hansons Auctioneers)

The book, which was published in London, also states: “The inclinations of maids in marriage is to be known by many symptoms for when they arrive to puberty (which is about the 14 or 15 year of their age) then their natural purgations begin to flow, and the blood which is no longer taken to augment their bodies abounding, fires up their minds to venery (sexual indulgence).

“External causes may also incite ‘em to it; for the spirits being brisk and inflamed when they arrive at this age, if they eat hard, fat things and spices, the body becomes more and more heated; whereby the desire to veneral embraces is very great.”

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“There were several reasons for that. For example, it includes woodcut illustrations of ‘monsters’ that 'are begot by Women's unnatural lying with Beasts' - an example being a woman 'generating with a dog'.

“There are several illustrations of beast-like creatures including a man sporting a bushy dog’s tail and a monster being born in Ravenna, Italy, in 1512.

“This is blamed on ‘filthy and corrupt affection’. But you have to bear in mind that this book was written when people were still being burnt for witchcraft in Georgian England.